Stunning work Karl. Can't wait ti see the final product.

Man, I'm gone for a few months and look what I get to come back to!  Karl building the newest A7V kit!!  Wunderbar!!  I'm so envious that you have this kit, been wishing for a new kit of the A7v for years!  I was a bit taken aback when I read and saw what you're doing to this fine kit, but after seeing the initial results all I can say is AUSGEZEICHNET!!!   Looks to be another outstanding doog build!

BTW, did I miss any other builds of yours this year?  I seem to remember you working on a Panzer earlier this year (or was it last year)?

Karl- thanks for the explanation! Very helpful. I agree, sometimes just 'going for it' can lead to some welcome results.

Dave

Smells like my old basement.......

Today's work:

The importance of pinwashes. The panels on the bottom have them, the one on top dos not. Note the difference in definition.

I used some embossing powder on the seats to make it look like shredded fabric and moss,

Here's the seats painted up to look like rotted, smelly, old moss-covered fabric seats...

That's work for today! Hope to show more tomorrow!

Thanks for looking in!!

RBaer

Verrrr-ee eeeenteresting!

I still wanna know where the graffiti decals came from, I'm thinking a T-34 rotting away somewhere.....

Verrrr-ee eeeenteresting!

I still wanna know where the graffiti decals came from, I'm thinking a T-34 rotting away somewhere.....

Stage_Left

Hey Karl- looks fantastic, as usual. Your photos are very good as always, but I want to make sure I understand your thought process: did you use the hairspray and salt techniques together to give the chipped/worn paint effect more fidelity than either technique might produce individually?

Dave

What I did as to brush hairspray down the sides of the braces on the wall--I wanted to allow for big rust streaks in the creases of the braces-- and then I also attached salt to it while wet. I THEN wet down the rest of the walls with water, cut with a dab of liquid soap to help dispersion, and then salted that while wet. No plan or formula to speak of beyond that, just really kinda experimenting and rolling with it.

The hairspray came off a little more than I wanted, so I re-did the areas where it was too much. I just wet it and salted it.

If I were more patient, I would have done that in separate steps, and sealed between coats, but I wanted to get something happening with the paint already. Also, I'm confident enough at his stage to know that anything that got screwed up---like the too-big patches of rust--I could fix with little effort. And besides, some of my best finishes have been preceded by minor mistakes,

Thanks, too, Terry. Very kind words from you, and I appreciate the nice compliment!

Thanks, Steve, Reaper, and Bruce!! :)

Thanks for following along!!

Karl your work is second to none and very inspiring. We're so lucky to have all different types of builders here but your techniques stand apart. Its not only the techniques but the vision to see through a piece of plastic on a sprue and what your looking for. So cool..

Terry

Hey Karl- looks fantastic, as usual. Your photos are very good as always, but I want to make sure I understand your thought process: did you use the hairspray and salt techniques together to give the chipped/worn paint effect more fidelity than either technique might produce individually?

Dave

Looks fantastic, Karl!

Wunderbar!

                    Excellent results............

OK< got some more details to show...

I touched up the white a bit inside the walls, I didn't care for those large rust patches. I just laid down some more salt and sprayed the patches...I think it looks more like what I had envisioned....

I decided to do some sponge chipping next. I tore a little piece off of gray packing sponge and dabbed it into a rust color....this is some ancient bottle of "AccuFlex something-Brown"--the label is worn away...

For anyone looking to try this the first time, make sure you do a little test before each pass to make sure that your paint is of the proper liquidity to transfer that way you want it too. If the paint is to thick it will be tougher to get a good pattern---test it on a piece of paper, As the paint dries in your bottle top or wherever you put it, add a LITTLE bit of water to it to thin it a bit and it will be easier to use.

And apply it to the parts you want to chip...doing the seat backs..

The driver's floor and area..still need to do spot-washes...notice that I've used a Dremel tool to "age" the seats...

I have found that you can not only dab the sponge, but drag it along to make various effects. I've dragged it here down from some of the apertures to simulate rust streaks. Note the weird variety of colors and paints that I'm using. Basically whatever catches my eye. Mix it on the brush to get different tones and go to town!

The top panels have been done, the bottom, not...

Close up...

And some of the other parts..

Radiators..

The gun...

The driver deck so far...the seats have yet to be painted....still thinking on these...I have to add some kind of stuffing..

Still LOTS to do on the interior. Lot of little detail parts to do and then I have to assemble it and make sure it all fits...

Stay tuned, and thanks to all for looking in! Comments and questions always welcomed!

TigerEP1, thank you kindly, ANd don't worry--you can learn to be a superb modeler here. Heck, this is where I learned a lot of my skill!

Cliff, thanks for the king words, I'm sure your mufflers turned out fine. You put out some cool wrk yourself!

Thanks too, Bish. I appreciate you following along!

disastermaster

He heh.....Hey, I found an old page here on finescale that has some credible info on the exterior colors.

That does look really nice Karl, love that rusty finish.

Yeah, looks great Karl. I just rusted out two mufflers and wish they'd come out half as well as what you've got here.

wow... just wow man. Looks amazing. I only wish i could be half as talented as you :/ (i need to learn how to airbrush) Keep up the great work!

He heh.......

"Parts and recreation".

                     Looking good.

Hey, I found an old page here on finescale that has some credible info on the exterior colors.

Hi guys,

Been busily working away on this,and it's been a real task to plan the construction vs painting necessities. I have decided that I need to paint the interior first now at this point and then worry about finishing up the exterior. I'm going to go for an unrestored, rusted-out interior and a fresher exterior paint scheme, like you would expect of a monument in a park somewhere.

Finishing up the detailing, these door-seats look like wood to me, so I'm going to replace them wth real wood from a few detail sheets that I got from a friend. I removed the plastic "wood" with a Dremel and sandpaper. Ugh, that was tedious duty!

These little PE pieces that support the driver's portals can be tricky to bend, but if you use a small bending tool with a razor blade, it's not hard at all. Did I mention that I hate PE?

I'm starting off with a rusty base. First, a spray of dark brown over the gray primer, shot wit an airbrush.

Parts forest..

I used Adam Wlder's Nitro line "Rust Effects" to spatter some rust against the brown. This is so that when I salt and hair spray the parts, what will show through is not just bland brown rust.

The results

And now, I have used a coat of hair spray and attached regular iodized slat by sprinkling it on the wet hair spray.

Let it dry before painting...

Next, I sprayed a light and varied coat of Model MAster flat White.

Some of the parts required different colors; I mixed up a grayish-green mix for some of these parts. There is no definite consensus on the actual colors used in the interiors of these tanks, so there's a lot of leeway to play with.

The hull interior: the lower wall has had the salt brushed off.

After scraping the salt off, here's what I have so far. This is without any extra detailing or weathering.

I will now go back and add some more white patches with a sponge and brush. Washes and filters, pigments and streaking to come. Then I can finally put the walls on and get finishing the exterior, which should be a lot easier than the inside!

Thanks for looking in, guys! Lemme hear from ya if you have any suggestions or criticisms!

GMorrison

I think I just figured the story out. This'll be good! Don't the Germans get little spikey things on their helmets? Just kidding.

RBaer

Graffiti decals? Elaborate please! Oh the possibilities!

I think I just figured the story out. This'll be good! Don't the Germans get little spikey things on their helmets? Just kidding.

Those look nicer than the old Woodland Sceneics rub-ons in HO scale.

Graffiti decals? Elaborate please! Oh the possibilities!

Thanks Karl, they do look nice and real simple to work with. I am seriously considering this and the Tamiya Mk IV.

Thanks, guys!

Bish, yep--they snap right together nicely. ANd thy're pretty durable when moving them around. A real nice engineering job here by Meng!

Thank you, Cliff and Tojo!

KnightsTemplar, yeah, the tracks are especially a HUGE improvement over the Tauro model, which I have as well in the stash, and which are, from all accounts, a real nightmare. I have yet to decide whether to keep and build up the Tauro eventually as a "closed" model--the interior is now too rudimentary to display what with this one on the market--or sell it for cheap. But there are so many cool WWI figures being released, I may do another small dio with some cool figures at some point. :)